Then at some point I started to grow up and my mind changed and weed started to make me extremely anxious and paranoid. I would take long breaks and then try it once a year or something and it would make me feel so disoriented about life it wasn’t very fun at all. Still get flashbacks just writing about it now.
Haven’t smoked for 10 years and don’t miss it. It was probably just another escape mechanism for me anyway given my circumstances back then.
But I do know other people (some who used to be friends) that had similar experiences of having their feelings/psyche amplified to unbearable levels.
If it helps you it’s great (especially if you have a really bad condition) but otherwise.. it’s an absolute waste of time and just numbs you to all-familiar state.
I used to support legalization and was a proponent of patient first planning and sales interaction.
Instead it's used as a cover to run the dispensaries as covert pharmacies.
Doctor visit style. You go in, wait in a lobby, one patient at a time, describe your ailments or symptoms, describe the effects you desire and they make suggestions on which strains and products would be best for you.
Weve gone recreationally legal since then and most stores are still set up this way.
Some are dropping the pretense and are full on commercial outlets now. None of the pagentry around medicinal help. Just wall to wall shelves and a line out the door.
Noticed this recent change just a week ago when my local shop switched from patient-based to full commercial when they demolished the privacy wall and just serve people as fast as possible now.
Not sure which is best. I did always feel the previous model was a bit shady.
> Doctor visit style. You go in, wait in a lobby, one patient at a time
This has less to do with pretending to be medical and more to do with physical security. It's a cash business; think through how you'd rob a dispensary. If the employee escapes and you're the only customer in the room, you aren't taking hostages. The "examination room" is a mantrap.
If they're starting to not do this anymore, I'd take that to mean they finally found insurance to cover their more-substantial losses.
And now I hear ads on podcasts listing its benefits. Honestly it sounds like people just wanted it legalised for recreational use and the medical uses were a good cover.
I don’t think cannabis should be illegal.
The folks I do know that get value from it seem fine. But could they maybe benefit from a therapist rather than wallowing in stress on their own/with friends? Eh yeah also probably true.
I would be equally horrified if someone told me they were drinking vodka daily but “just for their anxiety”, or having four glasses of wine a night to “treat their insomnia”.
Generally speaking as I've gotten older pot in general just makes me anxious. Most of that is likely because CBD and related components have been bred out of pot and today's strains are mainly for the hard core regular users who need the stronger stuff to get the effect they want.
Hopefully as legalisation takes hold the market will cater to casual and first time users, and offer a variety of experiences besides the fairly stupefying effect of strong pot.
I remember the first time I smoked pot, at at about age 13, well. My high school dealer who was the same age thoughtfully sold us what was mostly leaf, but it was the nicest, most interesting stone which gave the world a nice fury/fuzzy texture and made you laugh.
These days your first time is more likely to approximate being plugged into a mains socket, with no way to disconnect for a couple of hours.
But I think there's something else going on besides just strength. The first time this happened to me was when it was illegal, about 15 years ago in my 20s. I was a daily smoker and and flower vape user.
About 7 or 8 years I moved to California, started smoking again. It was fun, turned into a daily smoker and started getting anxious about life. And just drifted away from it. I was taking dabs, and used a bong pretty regularly, all fairly strong. I'd take a few hits from a bowl and not enjoy it. The change was in the last few months and pretty sudden.
Hm, maybe because cannabis is cheaper and more readily available? I am extremely wary of becoming dependent on a substance that either my doctor or my insurance can cut my access to on a whim. Hell even when cannabis was illegal, it was still usually easier to procure than certain head-meds--which themselves are of dubious long-term efficacy and carry substantial risk (looking at you, benzos and opiates).
Like this is just a totally asinine stateme to me. Would you rather chief blunts or take a lamectil.... rappers dont brag about prozac
Personally I was prescribed Celexa and had an extremely adverse reaction involving an inability to sleep properly and terribly lucid dreams. However, Lamictal worked great for a quite a while until it was priced out of my reach.
For some, 10mg of THC as needed, typically every other night, works well and is cheaper with less side effects.
A cure for anxiety will take a change in society. A Political solution that encourages community, inclusiveness, and towns/cities that aren't broken by design.
"Your mental health issues cannot be solved by anything short of a societal shift."
I agree that there's a lot of things we could change as a society to meaningfully improve mental health but that takes time and people need assistance now. Personally, I've temporarily relocated to Barcelona for my mental health and physical health because being able to walk anywhere without needing to fight cars is an incredible gift to me - the lower barrier helps me walk longer and more frequently. I wish more of the world was like this - but it'll take a while to accomplish that.
It's cool that your relocation helped, I totally get the city routine helping people like us, walking, real food, pretty stuff to look at, culture, all in fingers reach, consider ourselves lucky for the experience of life quality improvement.
you don't resolve anxiety by adding more capacity to endure it (resilience.) Instead you need to address the root causes— most often maladaptive strategies learned in childhood that need to be relearned and corrected, and then once you are no longer creating the negative emotional material because you're living in a better way, you generally need to support healing/recovery from holding the anxiety however long you did. This often involves recreating or revising relationships with close loved ones.
adding more capacity to tolerate almost always makes things worse in the long run. you don't need a bigger tank to hold more poison, you need to stop creating or consuming the poison, and then you need to detoxify yourself to get rid of what you've already taken in.
disclaimer: I am a psychotherapist but I am not acting as anyone's therapist by sharing this, which is my opinion.
I loosely agree, in the sense that the current common view is too focused on making the individual bear their own cross. But in a literal sense you are wrong, in that there are many who are helped by pills.
These are all downstream from the points mentioned.
> Personal problems are political problems. There are no personal solutions at this time. There is only collective action for a collective solution. (Carol Hanisch, 1970)
/s
1. GABA 2. Serotonin 3. CBD
CBD is not just THC which is somewhat not effective but other amines such as one in chocolate that gives you the runner high.
My bias is that 50% of ADHD'ers have anxiety disorders due to noradrenaline running high..in my case I take GABA, L-theanine and chocolate to control it.
I think this is partially the case. I think the glutamatergic system is messed up which causes the release of too much norephenephrine and dopamine.
After a while this causes down-regulation and the actual neuron pathways develop "bad connection" e.g. the frontal lobe develops bad habits/poor motivation.
At this point you're stimulated via norephephine but you have poor motivation/focus because of the dopamine tolerance.
---
NAC is an interesting candidate you might find interesting as it directly effects the glutamatergic system. I was recommended this by my doctor and had a good personal experience (I'm not a doctor, etc).
I would think these two would make anxiety worse?
GABA and L-theanine make a lot of sense as these will directly impact the glutamatergic system and are well known to improve anxiety (and are also synergistic with stimulants especially caffeine).
Weed does wonders for my depression but unfortunately makes my anxiety worse but it does help some people. Especially high CBD strains.
Mescaline, found in cacti, is basically a cure for my anxiety. A single dose once every 6 months or so keeps it at bay. It’s illegal, and movements to legalize it are all money grabs and won’t do much to increase access (the ballot measures for psychedelics are all backed by a single PAC who are interested in $$$$$ from treatments and training). Sorry for the rant lol
> Last I heard pot has a large number of substances which have not been studied for impact on health.
Probably about as many as are in an average bowl of stew?
As much as people hate to admit it, booze and cigarettes are much better for coping with anxiety, and Cheaper Than Therapy as the kids like to say.
"You can't use a coping mechanism to heal from an issue/ wound/ trauma. It's basically just replacing one addiction for another."
I'm paraphrasing. But I agree with that statement (which isn't to say that healing is an easy or simple process).
however, I would be extremely shocked if cigarettes and alcohol are better for it than weed. cigarettes are basically buying yourself low-level intermittent anxiety, and alcohol, unless you’re a genuine alcoholic, is just a rollercoaster of ups and downs that will likely result in future memories for you to be anxious about. that’s my experience anyway
Every person I've ever known who smoked pot for some "health" thing was a rolling dumpster fire.
However, though I am not super steeped in this, I do know there are some prominent exceptions. I think CBD for epilepsy is one. There is an FDA approved CBD treatment for epilepsy, brand name epidiolex (had to google that).
For folks in those situations it can be a true blessing.
Its the exact same thing with morphine, opiates. On one hand they're the scourge of society and abuse of them is a real problem, but for a soldier dying on the battlefield from horrible injuries, or someone dying of the unbelievable pain of sickel cell, in those situations we call it one of the best inventions ever, so much so it'd inventor/discoverer was given a Nobel prize.
Long story short, I've known some. But they all died of cancer. Thanks for putting them down.
I consume CBD and high THC options through ingestion of oils and vaporisation of flowers.
(Not saying GP is correct, as I'm not interested enough in the topic to know if their take on the research status is accurate. But your anecdote -- while great for you -- is not a basis for making generalizations.)
